Senior Bihar Government officials, led by principal secretary of the state’s water resources department Ajay Nayak, met T K A Nair, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, on Friday in the capital and sought clarification regarding the Bihar Government’s “confusion”.

Bihar’s contention is that the tasks assigned to the Kosi Breach Closure Advisory Committee (constituted by the Bihar Government) and those assigned to the high-level expert team constituted by the Union Ministry of Water Resources at the Centre are overlapping. This, the state Government contends, has led to confusion on who should execute the task of plugging the breach.

“The meeting was essential to find ways and means of plugging the breach. Both the Government of India and the Bihar Government have constituted a committee each. Thereby, clarification and technical solution needs to be found”, Bihar Resident Commissioner in Delhi, C K Mishra told The Indian Express.

However, senior officials under the ministry said that it had clearly outlined the responsibilities of the two committees. Senior officials at the Centre said that the Bihar Government’s committee was asked to undertake the task of plugging the breach at the earliest, while the Centre’s committee was asked to suggest ways to avoid similar catastrophes in the future.

What is ironic is the fact that while representatives of the Bihar Government have been regularly involved in monitoring the situation on Kosi on a day-to-day basis, it is after days that the state Government has raised the issue of ‘confusion’.

Representatives of the Bihar Government on Friday said that the state would have “no objection” if the Centre undertook the task of plugging the breach. The Centre is unsure if Bihar wants to execute the task or if it wants to hand the responsibility to the Centre.

The Bihar Government had undertaken the Kosi Project and has been managing it since the 1960s. It was only in the early 1990s that the state Government started asking for funds every year to carry out repairs in the embankments that fell in Nepal’s territory.

After the meeting with the principal secretary to the PM on Friday, the Water resources Ministry was asked to clarify the situation at the earliest.